I hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. I certainly relaxed and ate too much! I had a bit of time to plan out the remaining 3 weeks until Winter break. I am excited to get back into the class with the students and take action
Book orders: Scholastic catalogues will be sent home on Monday. The order will be placed early so students will receive the new books before Winter break. If you want to order online, the code for our class is LNWXP.
- With each order we earn points and are rewarded with books for our classroom. Our library is growing and the kids get excited to see new titles! Thanks to those who have ordered!
Yoga: Ms. Skoog has offered to organize a Tuesday morning yoga session each week. See the poster.
Homework:
- Last week students did an incredible job with the task of teaching a skill or subject to others. See the photo gallery homework section for samples of their work.
This week students will fill out a food log (all meals and snacks), including specific details of what they are eating! We will be graphing our findings and looking deeper into what we eat through our food chemistry unit.
Other options if time permits:
Typing programs (see the QAE library resources page for options)
Quick math facts (multi. or division)
Homework Club Reminder:
The upstairs Treehouse teachers have decided to host a homework club! We would like to create a calm environment for students to get help. One of us will be available Mon., Tues. Thurs. and Fri. (not Wed. due to regular meetings). We have middle school students volunteering to help on Tues. and Thurs. as well. Perhaps this time will eliminate struggles before bedtime, confusion about how to do the work and losing or leaving a piece of work in random places! This will take place from 3:35 - 4:30. No need to sign up, just tell your kids to show up!
Social and Emotional Learning:
Students gave and received enough props (catching a classmate in action doing something kind, helpful, safe or fair) to earn all the marbles that fit in the jar!
- Students generated celebration ideas (candy party, sleepover, scavenger hunt, all day recess, community service, etc.) and took a vote. They eventually voted to take on the responsibility of a class pet! After a ton of research and debates the class narrowed it down to four options, which include a rabbit, ferret, leopard gecko, or hamster. I'm not thrilled about the idea of a class pet but I'm just glad a snake or spider didn't make it to the final four!
- Reader's workshop:
Literature circles are still taking place. It is so much fun to hear students read out loud, hold mature discussions and ask intriguing questions.
- Soon I will be sending home sample prompt questions that you can use with your students. Remember, we are focusing on diving deep into our books and holding discussions that are meaningful (connections to history, and social or political issues).
- Writer's workshop:
The students are still drafting their realistic fiction stories. The story mountain (intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) has helped students map out their stories. We have worked to scale back the stories so we don't get lost as writers. Again, students will be sharing stories this week and meeting with writing partners on a more formal level to hear critique.
The upstairs Treehouse teachers have decided to host a homework club! We would like to create a calm environment for students to get help. One of us will be available Mon., Tues. Thurs. and Fri. (not Wed. due to regular meetings). We have middle school students volunteering to help on Tues. and Thurs. as well. Perhaps this time will eliminate struggles before bedtime, confusion about how to do the work and losing or leaving a piece of work in random places! This will take place from 3:35 - 4:30. No need to sign up, just tell your kids to show up!
Students gave and received enough props (catching a classmate in action doing something kind, helpful, safe or fair) to earn all the marbles that fit in the jar!
Literature circles are still taking place. It is so much fun to hear students read out loud, hold mature discussions and ask intriguing questions.
The students are still drafting their realistic fiction stories. The story mountain (intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) has helped students map out their stories. We have worked to scale back the stories so we don't get lost as writers. Again, students will be sharing stories this week and meeting with writing partners on a more formal level to hear critique.
The treaty ultimately forced the tribe to move to a new land (reservation). The tribe shared their feelings about the relocation. Mostly they expressed frustrations, deceit and injustice. To end the unit, I took students on the journey through a story of threatening challenges (weather, famine, sickness) as they traveled to the reservation. When the tribe arrived they began to set up their village once again. Students were overwhelmed with the task and reflected on the entire story from their characters perspective.
Ms. Meg helped support our NW Coast Unit by introducing skills to make masks. Students looked carefully at shapes and colors commonly found in NW Coast art. They also discussed why nature and animals were so important to NW Coast people.
Students have been seriously devoted to learning about NW Coast culture. Unfortunately, we can't cover it all! If you would like to take advantage of the interest there are several trips and activities to enrich our unit.
Enrichment opportunities connected to NW Coast:
- SAM (Seattle Art Museum) has an exhibit on contemporary native american art.
- Burke Museum has plenty of NW Coast art and exhibits including Pacific Voices and Totem pole history.
- Rainer Valley Cultural Center - Please join Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre for a performance of As Long As The Rivers Run, an original musical play by Roger Fernandes (Lower Elwha Klallam) about the historical and contemporary relationship between salmon and Northwest Native peoples. Reception and refreshments following, all are welcome. ***Cast includes QAE 4th Grader Nathalia Hernandez-Zambrano***
Last week we wrapped up multiplication and began division with an array of games. This week will draw connections between multiplication and division and move towards dividing multi-digit numbers.
If your student has not memorized their single digit facts (1-10) please encourage them to practice at home. Students will be expected to answer 50 facts in 3 minutes. Ask your student how they did on their third "quiz" of facts. They are graphing their results so they can see their progress. These facts are essential to their success with operations and algebraic thinking.
Food Chemistry: Students explore basic concepts related to food and nutrition and set up their own classroom laboratory to perform physical and chemical tests to identify the presence of starch, glucose, fats, and proteins in common foods.
We will also take the unit a little deeper and think about growing, marketing, processing and manufacturing, and selling of food.